Tag Archives: speaking

Preparing for the Certificación Oral Test: Role Plays.

You won’t probably need to be reminded that in the Certificación Oral Test there are two parts. No matter what level you are taking there is always an Interaction with the examiner and then another part where you’ll be on your own talking about whatever is shown in the pictures the examiner will offer you.

Today I want to help you practice the Interaction at Elementary level. I hope these slides help you. More will be coming , so keep posted!!!.

Picture Description: Elementary Level

I want to share a few pics that I am planning to use in today’s elementary classes to practise Picture Description. I published this activity last year and it worked so well that I guess I’ll be forever using it. So here it is again!

For this activity the students are sitting in pairs, one student facing the board and the other with his back to the board. Using the OHP, a picture of people performing something is displayed. Now, the person seeing the picture has to describe it in as much detail as possible and the other person has to draw the picture. Allow them four or five minutes and then choose the best picture. Below are some of the photos I’m going to use and some expressions they need to use. (note: we have just begun describing photos, so right now I am teaching the basics. Hopefully, I’ll be teaching the contents in this photocopy soon ( Click here to see it)

Introduce the photo: This photo shows…. I can see

Location: on the left/right , in the middle, at the front/back

The people (appearance and actions) She looks sad. He is reading

Your opinion: I think…. I like it because…

Easy Peasy! Have a nice weekend!

Student’s Corner: My hometown

It’s always a pleasure to share with you the work of my hard-working students.

The task was either talking or writing about their hometown and I have to say that I was gladly surprised when most of my students, who had never ever given a speech in English, decided to give a beautiful speech about their hometown. I had some beautiful contributions in written form (like Rodrigo’s and Carmen’s )  but  most of them were given orally and sometimes even accompanied by slides like the one just below, given by Manuel.
These were the guidelines they had to follow and necessarily include in their presentation.

  • Name of their hometown
  • Population
  • Why it is famous
  • Good places to visit
  • Places to eat and relax
  • The best/worst about their hometwon.

To publish Rodrigo and Carmen’s work I have used Issuu

And Manuel’s beautiful presentation of Avilés shared in Slideshare.

Thank you guys! Well done!

Speaking: Describing a Dish

Happy New Year to everybody! I am back!!! Hard to get started once again after this longish holiday. It’s been eight days now since we have let 2014 in and it is time we get down to some serious work, don’t you think?

Talking in class about food related things after some huge binge eating and drinking is not precisely what appeals to me most, but unfortunately I cannot choose.
This is an activity I am going to do with my Elementary students after some serious work practising food vocabulary.

The activity is simple. The students are sitting in pairs, one student facing the board and the other with his back to the board. Using the OHP, a picture of a popular dish is displayed. Now, the person seeing the picture has to describe it in as much detail as possible, talking about its ingredients and the way it is cooked and the other person has to guess the dish. Allow them two or three minutes and then display another picture for the other student to do the same. Below are some slides with the  dishes that I am going to use.

Some useful vocab they are likely to use

Nouns: pan, cinnamon, olives, tuna, blood sausage,

Verbs: to beat eggs, to fry, to boil, to add,  to stir with a spoon,to slice (apples)